In the last post I used a webhook to notify a listener to run a remediation script. In this post I'll document how to configure the listener. FastAPI There are many options to setup a webhook listener. After a brief research I decided to use FastAPI instead the more common Flask. Webhook What is a webook? In essence, …

IP Fabric network discovery can collect the network state. Release 3.7.0 introduced webhooks. Let's see how webhooks can be used for automated remediation. Brownfield automation In a common brownfield scenario, an existing network is carefully configured box-by-box by CLI huggers network engineers. It is not unusual to …

Last year I bought an Huawei Matebook D to use at home for light workload like surfing the web (is this term still in use?) and take notes for my blog. The Matebook replaced my tablet, I preferred an actual laptop over a tablet with a keyboard. After a year of use I finally decided to install Linux on the laptop. Here …

During Cisco Live this year I had a chance to stop by IP Fabric booth and exchange a quick chat about their product and the problem they're trying to solve. After the event I had the opportunity to run a trial to better understand the product and the features if offers. What struck me was that the product solves …

AKIPS network monitoring. Network documentation and monitoring are topics that never lose interest to me. Over the years I worked with many products, Nedi, Observium, Librenms,, NetBox, Icinga, NetShot, Smokeping to name a few. Each product has its strengths and weaknesses that in some cases are nothing more than the …

Network changes tool to prevent disasters. Network changes Every time I manage a change to a customer network I have a chance to taste the many shades of possible IT Operations maturity levels. I collected some best practices over the years about how to reduce risk and speed-up the change and testing process. I'll …

Netshot Configuration and Compliance Management Software We live in a time of intent, automation, orchestration and a lot of wonderful tools that promise to make the life of network engineers easier. Sometimes reality is simpler and maybe less fascinating, real problems need to be solved quickly with a small budget. …

The problem In my last post about Linux at command I talked about notifications on my mobile. In most of my automation scripts I prefer notifications to come to my mobile instead of via email or SMS (really? in 2015?) because: it is always with me I check it thousands times a day (I know you too ;-) ) it is a preferred …

The problem As many IT professionals I work quite often on the command line with many command prompts open. Windows lacks a good native command prompt software so usually you see monitors filled with black terminals that are hard to manage and track. The automation ConsoleZ allows multiple tabs and to split tabs …

The problem Security today is a main concern for every computer user. One of the first problem is how to manage password. I see many creative solutions around: post-it or paper only, use of the same password for all services, a spreadsheet inside an encrypted zip file... none of them appear safe or efficient. The …

The problem I manage many networks and quite often I work at customer site. For every site I need and IP address, gateway, Wi-Fi network, sometimes proxy, a printer and many other unique network settings. Change IP address on Windows is a process that takes too much time and many clicks. The automation I used to use …

SecureCRT is one of my favorite tools. Today I had a chance to use it in a way I didn't expected. The problem A customer called about a problem with a radio link that sometimes loses connection with the remote unit. The workaround was to reload the base unit to restore the link. The process was manual: the customer …

Quick tool: PingInfoView PingInfoView is a small utility that allows you to easily ping multiple host names and IP addresses, and watch the result in one table. It automatically ping to all hosts every number of seconds that you specify, and displays the number of succeed and failed pings, as well as the average ping …

Log analysis is important to both troubleshoot and understand network devices behavior. Tail/less/grep are great tools that can help to filter and search hundreds or thousands lines of logs. If you prefer a GUI there are a couple of alternatives that can fit well. For windows users only Log Expert is a great choice …

One of the more annoying things of the windows command line is the lack of Shift+Ins to paste the clipboard. A bit of googling made me discover a very useful software called AutoHotkey. While I'm just beginning to use it it proved to be the perfect tool for the job. This simple script allows use Shift+Ins to paste the …